Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Moses Mackay On His Debut Solo Album!

Episode Date: April 11, 2023

We talk to Sol3 Mio member Moses ahead of the release of his debut solo album 'Grace'!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. Solomio are so amazing operatic singers that they are. They've got a great version of Ed Sheeran's song, I See Fire. And now Moses Mackay, who's won a Solomio, has got his own solo album for the first time. It's called Grace. It's very cool as well. And he's got up early on a Monday morning for us. Welcome to the studio, Moses.

How are you? I'm good, brother. Good. We used to see you first thing in the morning. You'd work at one of the sister stations at Flavour every morning. That's right. They were early mornings. And you know, it's funny.

I was just telling these guys as we walked in. There's a little room just over there. See that little black room? Yeah. Yeah, I slept in there a couple of times. Is that a sleep? Oh, I haven't worked out of sleep. No,, there's a little room just over there. See that little black room? Yeah. Yeah, I slept in there a couple of times. Is that a sleep? Oh, it worked out. No, it's not a sleep place.

So I'd do a concert, finish at midnight. I'd be like, well, I'm on air in five hours. So that's why you'd sleep in that room? So I'd go straight to the room. Oh, I only sleep in there when I'm in trouble at home. You sleep in there quite a lot, actually. I know you've got a solo album. That's very cool.

That's right, yeah. It's called Grace. It's called Grace. It's called Grace. It's a dedication to my grandma. And for me, before Sawney Mew, I was writing.

So I've always been a writer. So I've got catalogues of music. But I never released any of it. So how many songs had you stored away in a vault?

Books. Really? Yeah. So we're talking hundreds. Oh yeah, hundreds. I used to write musicals. I used to write musicals. I used to write musicals. I wrote albums.

Oh, that's awesome. It's all coming out. And you kind of, you're just saying, went to LA? You kind of left the radio show? You left the boys from Solomon?

Yeah, I told the boys, look, I'm going to jump on a plane. I'm going to get out of here. I'll see you guys soon. And so I jumped on a plane flew to LA and I was there for about three months

and just disconnected from everybody. Disappeared. Became a ghost. We actually had, there was a police team seven episodes on you. Where have you seen this man?

Got David Lomas on searching for him. I was like, we need to get him back. We don't know where he is. He's disappeared. Missing pieces. We couldn't connect.

Yeah. And so you went over there to record the album. Yeah. And you were just saying that you had to find a studio, obviously. That's right. I needed a place to write the whole whole album and so i reached out to a whole bunch of

studios i mean la's got to be one of the most expensive places in the world right now so to get a studio we're talking silly money and i told these guys i was like look i don't have out of respect i don't have that kind of crazy money you're asking and then one guy comes back and he goes where you from i said i'm from new. He goes, what are you looking to do? I said, I want to write an album. Yeah, just like some egg. And he goes, can you get to the studio? I said, when?

He goes, now. I was like, done. Jumped in an Uber. Went straight to his studio in the middle of Hollywood. There was this guy waiting for me. I walked in. And we just got on like a house on fire. Now, to be fair, the studio looked like a house.

It was a shack. I walked in. I was like, oh, God. What have I done? Oh, God. Is he going to sell me drugs? What is this now to be fair the studio looked like a like a house it was a shack yeah i walked in i was like oh god what have i done oh god is he gonna sell me drugs what is he's gonna make zip my shirt oh god and we walked in and he goes follow me push this door open and it was just all creaky door we walked in sure enough just this pristine studio and i said to him what is this crazy place i just feel super creative in here and he goes this was Bruno Mars's old studio so before Bruno Mars was Bruno Mars he used to come here and he used to spend days just writing just books and books and books of stuff Lady Gaga recorded there

it's just one of those holes in the wall that you find in Hollywood you know like you just totally unassuming but people just rock up what a great story and so you recorded the album with this guy no i actually produced it uh all myself but yeah i'm excited man that's a great story yeah oh no it's very cool it'll be great can't wait to hear what you what you've been doing because it sounds awesome um i put it into chat gpt you know the artificial intelligence what could i ask moses mckay about and he gave me the 10 commandments yeah yeah if you had to describe your album only using emojis which would you choose that's quite a good question actually from chat gpt uh only emojis yeah it would be like the fire emoji or it would be like

i reckon it would be maybe the rock climbing one. Random. There you go. Good emoji. Did your fellow Solo Mio members try to sabotage your solo album, secretly replacing your microphone with a kazoo during recording sessions? A kazoo? Yeah, this is random, but there.

But it's a big play. They have to fly to America, sneak into this guy's studio. And replace a microphone with a kazoo, which I'm sure you'd notice. But anyway, that didn't happen. This sounds fun. No, no, that didn't happen. How'd that be? sneak into this guy's studio and replace a microphone with a kazoo which I'm sure you'd notice but anyway that didn't happen this sounds fun no no that didn't happen

how'd that be it must be because you guys all you know you come together you're kind of like the Avengers and then you have your solo projects like if Iron Man goes does his thing

yeah so one's in I think one's in Berlin at the moment and the other other brother's over in Spain I believe singing opera

we're thinking about releasing a solo album at some stage. We're still touring. We're still doing a whole bunch of stuff. This has just been my, I told them, I said, look, I'm basically going on sabbatical for like a year, and I'm going to write this album and release it. And they're like, all right.

That's awesome. Here it is. That's cool. That's awesome to see you doing your thing. Moses Mackay joining us in the studio. His new album, his solo album, Grace, is out. It's Moses from Solo Mio.